The transformation of the Internet into a viable
and valuable public policy research tool has occurred in the past
two years chiefly because of the efforts of the U.S. government
to make greater and greater use of the electronic medium. A mountain
of serious information is now online -- news, government decisions,
background reference materials, facts and data about a full range
of U.S. government programs. This Research Guide is a first attempt
to document Internet resources in the nuclear weapons field by
mainly concentrating on U.S. government information, policy, and
programs.

A future guide will attempt to catalog the Internet
resources that cover policy and information about Russian, British,
French, and Chinese nuclear forces and capabilities (some Russian
sites are listed in Chapter Six). The U.S. government example
of providing an enormous amount of information -- particularly
regarding national security matters -- is worthy of emulation.

The Guide is organized into six chapters and five
appendices. Chapter One covers general information and research
tools useful for searches and for keeping informed. Chapters
Two, Three, Four and Five describe the homepages of U.S. governmental
(executive and legislative), international governmental, and non-governmental
organizations. Chapter Six covers five issue areas -- nuclear
weapons policy, arms control and disarmament, nuclear forces and
weapons, production and dismantlement, and spending and contracting
-- where there are significant online resources. The appendices
are chronological or thematic bibliographies of over 500 full-text
treaties, regulations, military directives, reports, and government
statements and speeches dealing with various aspects of nuclear
weapons and arms control. A list of acronyms used in the Guide
is included at the end.

Though the new Internet medium has prompted some
to sound an alarm about breaches of information security, it should
be pointed out that the dissemination of information has long
been at the center of concern regarding the potential for the
proliferation of nuclear technology. What the Internet represents
is simply easier access to a mass of government information that
was already in the public domain. None of the fundamental rules
about governmental security classification have been transformed,
in fact the U.S. government has established rigorous new rules
about the dissemination of information over the Internet.

The current basic laws and regulations regarding
the classification system are Executive Order 12968, Access to
Classified Information (dated 4 August 1995) and Executive Order
12958, Classified National Security Information (17 April 1995),
both available from the White House homepage. The Departments
of Defense and Energy also have posted their security regulations
online (see Appendix C), and the Public Guidelines for Department
of Energy Classification of Information are accessible at http://www.osti.gov/html/osti/opennet/document/guidline/pubgc.html#ZZ0. Former Secretary Hazel O'Leary instituted
a large scale effort to declassify DOE documents and information.
The DOE OPENNET (located at http://www.osti.gov/html/osti/opennet/opennet1.html)
is the Department's online declassification database, including
references to declassified and publicly available documents after
1 October 1994. The documents are of different types: declassified
in total ("declassified"); classified or restricted
in some way ("sanitized" or "redacted"); unclassified
but of historical interest. Searches of the database can be performed
at http://www.osti.gov/waisgate/opennet.new.html. Through
OPENNET, one can also gain access to the minutes of the Secretary
of Energy Advisory Board Openness Advisory Panel.

Non-governmental organizations involved in the public
policy process are also fundamental resources. Chapter Five contains
a listing of the main groups across the political spectrum. Some
organizations merely make available brief fact sheets about their
activities and personnel, while others have extensive libraries
of news, documents, and reports. In particular, the Henry L.
Stimson Center and the Federation of American Scientists -- two
Washington-based groups -- have spearheaded an organizational
effort to use the Internet to disseminate information. The Stimson
Center and the Center for Non-Proliferation Studies (CNS) at the
Monterey Institute of International Studies also maintain online
guides to nuclear arms control and nuclear issues.

A number of organizations and private individuals
have also created nuclear-related Internet directories containing
links, historical documents, glossaries, references, timelines
of the Nuclear Age, and selected photographs and video. Sites
such as the High Energy Weapons Archive or Todd's Atomic Homepage
contain informative FAQs regarding current and historical issues
(such as links to Manhattan Project and Hiroshima/Nagasaki 50th
anniversary sites and the Enola Gay controversy). Table 3 is
a list of some of these nuclear clearinghouses.

Infomanage Nonproliferation Resources
http://infomanage.com/nonproliferation/Provides resources on weapons of mass destruction, conflict resolution and intelligence. It is unclear who sponsors and maintains this site.

The Internet and the Bomb: A Research Guide to Policy and Information about Nuclear Weapons is written and maintained by William M. Arkin and Robert S. Norris. Any questions, comments or suggestions should be sent to the authors at warkin@igc.org and rnorris@nrdc.org. This page was last updated 5/1/97